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Bitcoin’s start of the month was quite pleasant to say the least. The cryptocurrency crossed $4300 mark with just over $70 billion market cap. While other cryptocurrencies struggled to gain momentum, Bitcoin cruised through the weekend without registering any losses, as if Korea ICO ban never happened.
Positive news from Japanese government, which endorsed 11 cryptocurrency exchanges helped, Ethereum price cross $300 after a long time. Japan has positioned itself as a central hub within the Asian cryptocurrency ecosystem, and this announcement reaffirms that the country will play a prominent role moving forward.
The month of October has begun with total cryptocurrency at $145 billion – not terribly far away from its all time high of $175 billion. This month expect more countries to ban ICOs following China and South Korea. It is important to note that this prohibition is most likely a blanket ban and crypto markets have already gotten resilient to such news.
Overall, Bitcoin climbed 15% in the past 7 days, and is nearing its all time high of $5000. At the time of writing the cryptocurrency comfortably sits at $4281 – highest mark since September 12. The next resistance level is at $4600 and then $4800.
Top Stories from the Crypto World
1. Charlie Lee bets 250 BTC against Segwit2x
Charlie Lee, creator of Litecoin, has been very outspoken about Segwit2x recently. So much so that he has challenged SegWit2x developer Jeff Garzik, ShapeShift CEO Erik Voorhees, and Digital Currency Group CEO Barry Silbert – all SegWit2x proponents – to trade him 250 BTC from the original bitcoin blockchain for 250 BTC from the SegWit2x blockchain following the hard fork. That’s more than $1 million!
Lee tweeted:
“Lets do a public 1:1 trade. My Segwit2x 250 BTC for your non-2x 250 BTC after Nov HF. No HF, no trade. @jgarzik @ErikVoorhees @barrysilbert”
None of them responded, but Roger Ver (aka Bitcoin Jesus), who also happens to be a Segwit2x supporter, accepted the challege.
Roger tweeted:
“Why wasn’t [I] invited? I’ll gladly accept! You are economically illiterate if you think restricting the supply of block space is a good thing.”
It is hard to remember a time when both the Bitcoin camps (pro-blocksize-increase and against-blocksize-increase) were not involved in a debate about the best way to scale Bitcoin network. Now that the bets are in place, only time will tell who ends of losing millions of dollars.
2. Swiss regulators investigating ICOs
The Swiss financial regulatory board, Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA), is investigating ICOs based out of Switzerland. The move comes after a substantial uptick in the number of ICOs based in the country.
The board also noted that many of the ICOs that are currently active have already likely breached existing law that regulates financial instruments within the country. These include money laundering and terrorist measures, securities trading provisions, investment scheme laws, and banking laws.
A good thing to know: I wouldn’t be surprised if Switzerland outlaws ICOs ‘temporarily’ like China and South Korea. What ICO market needs right now is stringent ICO policies, so that investors are not duped by a startup that is raising millions without having a viable product in the first place. Something SEC is trying to achieve in the US.
3. SEC files charges against two ICOs
SEC’s previous warnings against ICOs are living up to the expectations. The charges were levied at REcoin and DRC (Diamond Reserve Club), both ICOs founded by Maksim Zaslavskiy.
These actions by the SEC clearly must serve as a strong warning that ICOs will be researched and targeted for prosecution unless they are careful about regulatory honesty.
SEC reiterated their warnings, both to investors and potential ICOs, saying:
“Investors should be wary of companies touting ICOs as a way to generate outsized returns. As alleged in our complaint, Zaslavskiy lured investors with false promises of sizeable returns from novel technology.“